


Take the Current When it Serves

by soulfulsam



Series: Taming Each Other [1]
Category: 10 Things I Hate About You (1999)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Established Relationship, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-04
Updated: 2019-02-04
Packaged: 2019-10-22 02:56:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 516
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17654723
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/soulfulsam/pseuds/soulfulsam
Summary: Things have been going great between Kat and Patrick since they made up after the prom. but summer is going by and Kat doesn't want to think about how it will probably end.





	Take the Current When it Serves

**Author's Note:**

> I recently re-watched this movie for the first time in years and I realized I had totally forgotten how obsessed I was with the perfectness of this couple. A series of plot bunnies entered my brain and made me ridiculously excited about writing fiction about these two trying to navigate their lives together as two difficult people who tame each other.
> 
> This is the first in what I hope will be a series of series of stories, all of which can be read as stand alone pieces of fiction, or read together as an ongoing tale of Kat and Patrick's life together.

“I’m moving to New York.” 

Kat knew she was going to have to tell him about Sarah Lawrence sooner or later. She’d chosen a lazy Sunday afternoon in the beginning of June. They had come home to an empty house, with post-it notes left on the fridge from Bianca, who was at the movies with Cameron; and their dad, who was on call at the clinic. Twenty minutes later, she and Patrick were lying together in her bedroom, half-naked, her head resting on Patrick’s chest as she breathed in the smell of his warm skin mixed with a hint of his laundry detergent, while his arms were wrapped loosely around her waist. Their lips were bright red and swollen after a brief but intense make-out session. The outline of his straining, clothed erection was noticeable through his jeans, but he wasn’t complaining or even mentioning his discomfort and, if anything, that only made her love him more. He never pushed her for sex – hell, he hadn’t even asked for it yet. She was going to miss him when she was gone. 

Patrick shifted underneath her and she lifted her head to get a good look at his face. He was trying for a neutral expression, but wasn’t as stoic as he liked to think; he didn’t look surprised, but disappointed. Maybe a bit scared.

“When?” he asked.

“August. About a week before classes start.”

“Which uni?”

“Sarah Lawrence.”

He grinned and gently ruffled the top of her head. “Figures. Brilliant as you are.” He waggled his eyebrows. “So let’s make the best of our time.”

His fingers tangled in her hair as he pulled her in for another kiss. She came along willingly and kissed him back, but his remark made her feel a little discomfited. She had tried to not think about the end of summer, but Patrick’s suggestion to “make the best of their time” reminded her that their relationship was finite. Of course it was unfair of her to ask for it to be otherwise – she would be 3,000 miles away for most of the year and they’d only made up from their fight at prom and started dating in earnest a few weeks ago. Patrick liked to throw around the l-word, and she had no doubt that he meant it, but they’d never talked about monogamy or commitment, and perhaps that was the way it should be – no promises, no obligations holding them back, nothing to drag out for months while one or both of them felt beholden to the other instead of letting their lives move forward.

After breaking away from their kiss, Patrick gently cupped her face in one hand and stroked her cheek with his thumb, his face turning serious, then tucked a strand of hair behind her ear.

“We’ll make it work.”

She raised her eyebrows and her mouth dropped open a little in surprise. “You want to?”

He gave her a lopsided grin and shook his head. “Course I do. Where else would a find a woman scarier than me?”

She kissed him again, hard. “Idiot.”


End file.
